The environmental man.

• Author: Simono, Lisa
• Position: Snow White Cleaners owner George Kelly

A dry cleaners isn't the likely place to find an environmental hero. But George Kelly, owner of Snow White Cleaners in Anchorage, is one of five people statewide recognized as a public health hero by members of Alaska Public Health Improvement Process.

Kelly has been in the dry cleaning business on and off for over 35 years. He started in the business when he was in high school, came back to it after serving in Vietnam, and has been with it ever since. He still bears the scars of his service. His right hand is callused, hard and rough like sandpaper, the victim of Agent Orange. Kelly has been environmentally conscious ever since.

He began to seriously question how his dry cleaning business dealt with its chemical byproducts when his daughter was young. He realized that how he chose to operate his business affected the environment and ultimately the future of his daughter and the world.

"I want to be part of the solution," Kelly said.

His first opportunity came after he attended a seminar on hazardous waste in the early 1980s, sponsored by the League of Women Voters in Anchorage.

"I was surprised to learn what a low opinion they had of dry cleaners," said Kelly, whose name tag identified him as an executive of an Anchorage dry cleaning company. "We were the bad guys and I didn't like it."

Although hazardous waste was rapidly becoming a global issue, Kelly couldn't find much research to help him reduce pollution; so he built his own reclamation system and patented it.

"The cost was high for small business," Kelly said. "You cannot avoid the burden of environmental regulations, but you can avoid the penalties and the stigma of being a bad guy."

Today Kelly advocates for quick and efficient access to information to, help small businesses manage their environmental problems. He says businesses can now get help from the Department of Environmental Conservation's Community Assistance and Information and Compliance Assistance offices.

Kelly has moved with the times from "how to properly dispose of my waste" in the 1980s to "how to prevent waste" in the 1990s. Years ago, Snow White Cleaners had a number of offices scattered throughout the city. His efforts to reduce hazardous waste and to pioneer pollution prevention and energy efficiency led him to...